Tag Archives: Mct Oil

So I’m on to week 2 of BulletProof Coffee and Intermittent Fasting, and I have learned a lot.

The good :

skin clearer

puffy face gone

no debilitating tummy grumbles and light-headedness

great energy levels

cravings for carbs or starchy foods completely gone

The ‘not so good’:

weight is the same as when I started (4 pounds gain/loss due to water or constipation is pretty normal)

This past weekend I continued with the coffee in the morning. I did slip up some: namely with a couple of whiskey sours on Friday night (date night with the hubby), hash browns with my brunch at around 1pm on Saturday, sorbet and a cocktail after dinner Saturday night and a couple of glasses on red wine on Sunday night.

After the drama of Friday my normal morning ‘routine’ was pretty messed up, so it’s a little hard to tell what’s what. I did however wake up Monday morning with the puffy face having returned and feeling more tired than I had in a while. Also my weight had returned ( I didn’t weigh myself over the weekend) to exactly what I was last Monday when I started the BulletProof Intermittent Fasting.

Interesting.

As much as I crave to lead a ‘normal’ life, I’m realizing that normal doesn’t have to mean the right to constantly eat foods that make me feel swollen and tired. I’m also realizing – again – that measuring on a daily basis pounds lost is not a great test. Body Fat, tightness of clothing, energy levels, quality of sleep… these are better.

So this week I’m testing 2 things: Body Fat and Ketosis.

My body fat I’m having tested via a DXA scan at the Body Composition Center. My state of ketosis I’m testing using Urinalysis Reagent Strips, though I appreciate these are not the most reliable. I’ve been testing for 2 days and am not showing any heightened ketosis yet – I expect to start seeing this from tomorrow as it takes 48 hours to burn the glucose I’ve stored over my higher-carb weekend.

If you haven’t read about Ketones and the benefits of a Ketogenic diet before, Ketosis is a fat burning mode that is good for your brain (not to be confused with Ketoacidosis – a dangerous condition for diabetics with the main element being acid, not ketones).

Recent studies by Dr. Dominic D’Agostino have shown that not only does a Ketogenic diet burn fat, it also can starve cancer cells and and staves off almost all degenerative diseases. With my grandmother having died recently from a fall related to her severe alzheimer’s disease, studies like Dr D’Agostino’s, along with real life testimonies of Dr Mary T Newport’s husband regressing in his state of alzheimer’s disease are particularly pertinent to me.

These studies are not new or fads – in fact in 2001, Dr. Richard L. Veech of the NIH, published an article entitled Ketone bodies, potential therapeutic uses in which he records that ketosis “has also been shown to decrease cell death in two human neuronal cultures, one a model of Alzheimer’s and the other of Parkinson’s disease”.

In my silly pursuit of losing the ‘last 5 pounds’ I have stumbled upon something that will positively impact the rest of my life. And though weight can be an easy distractor, the real shortcuts in health I am seeking are ways to live a bigger, better, longer life.

True to form I bring you what not to do, so that you don’t have to do it.

Above is an excerpt from a twitter conversation with a friend who read my post and decided to give the coffee a go. When Dave Asprey talks about going easy with the portions of butter and coconut oil at first, he wasn’t kidding!

I’m no scientist, and I’m not about to start reading medical journals (ok I’ve read a couple excerpts on this….) so I’ll leave the greater debate about nausea on this fast and toxins to the experts. What I can tell you though, is that in day 1 to 3 I did my 2 x the 7 minute workout before my coffee, or after my 1st. On my 4th and 5th day I did as Dave recommends and did my workout right before breaking the fast at 2pm, about an hour to an hour and a half after my second coffee. Yack-city.

Also a note on the MCT oil. Even though it does say on the bottle that it is 6 times stronger than coconut oil, and even though the well-documented side effects include nausea, upset stomach and a ‘mild laxative effect’, I thought I would be fine on my 1st day using it today ( it arrived with my low-toxin coffee beans last night) after a week of using coconut oil. Not. So.

After my second coffee with two tbsp of the MCT oil following one tbsp in my coffee this morning as I wanted it more ‘creamy’, followed then by my 14 minutes of workout, I felt thoroughly ill. I met a friend for lunch at 2pm, and at about 2:30 had two grilled fish tacos with corn tortillas and a lot of avocado. Lord. First I got the sweats like I was on something, then thought I was going to faint, then certain I was going to vomit. The last 15 minutes of our time together I’m not sure I know what was said as I was measuring the distance from where I was sat to the loo and estimating average times and going through worst-case scenarios.

So – the labels don’t lie. Go easy on the oils.

p.s. – my husband came home as I was finishing this and proof read my post. A massive look of relief passed over his face as he realized why his stomach had been in literal contractions all day… I * may * be also testing this on him….